Worm's Finest: The Brave and the Bold
by Cyclone
Summary: Reposted from Spacebattles. Side stories set in the multiverse of Worm's Finest. Formerly titled Worm's Finest: Paths.
1. Secret Origins: Path to a Good Man

**Worm's Finest**  
 _Secret Origins: Path to a Good Man_

(Earth-Aleph | 1990)

Contessa stepped through Doormaker's portal to her destination. Following the Path, she moved quickly, silent and unseen, toward the house. She couldn't predict what powers the vial in her hand would produce, but their research suggested it might be what they needed, powers that started weaker than David or Rebecca's but would grow stronger with time, with perhaps no upper limit.

With that much potential, whoever took it could eventually stop Scion. On the other hand, with that much potential, whoever took it could become as great a threat as Scion.

Hence the Path.

She easily slipped in and found what she was looking for: a water bottle, tucked into a bookbag. She emptied the vial into it and ghosted out, her power guiding her undetected past the house's occupants until she was safely outside.

"Door me."

She stepped through the portal and left the Kent farm.

Five minutes later, the woman of the house looked up the stairs. "Clarrrk! You're going to miss the bus!"

"Be right there, Mom!"

A teenage boy bolted down the stairs. Grabbing the bookbag from the floor, he accepted a sandwich from his mother and began scarfing it down on his way out the door, narrowly catching the school bus. As he took a seat, he finished the sandwich and guzzled down the contents of his water bottle.

 _Path to properly giving a dose of the contents of this vial to someone who is and will remain a good and moral person regardless of what powers he or she receives... complete._


	2. Secret Origins: Path to Ruin

**Worm's Finest**  
 _Secret Origins :Path to Ruin_

(Earth-Aleph)

He'd almost gone mad when he'd first triggered. Designs and schematics ran through his head, ideas on how to breach, fold, spindle, and mutilate dimensions, but beyond that had come other things, thoughts that both were and were not his own, thoughts that couldn't hear him.

One was from a world that, even now, had so few capes. That him had still been young at the time, but he was already recognized, burdened with great expectations. Another was imprisoned, amnesiac, monstrous. No, not monstrous. _Turned into_ a monster by those who had imprisoned him and wiped his memories. By Cauldron.

He'd had to rescue him.

But what he needed to do took resources. Rare components. Money. This had been during the early days, less than a decade after Scion had appeared, before there were publicly known options like the Protectorate, and he didn't know how people like Hero had done it. Still, he'd had ideas.

Cobbling together what he could from his savings, he'd opened a tiny breach, barely enough to establish a data connection, to the peaceful world free of capes where his other self's star was rising. Earth-Aleph, it was called, based on what the prisoner version of himself had overheard. His own world had been called Earth-Bet.

He tried selling transdimensional media. Somehow, the governments of both worlds had caught wind of it and had... reacted. Rather excessively at that. Under the pretext of copyright violations and national security, they'd tried to arrest him in order to confiscate his technology. They'd called him a villain, gave him the name "Professor Haywire."

So be it.

After twenty years, in 2005, he'd finally succeeded in breaching the Cauldron safe world, but he'd been distracted. Notes and papers. About an alien called Subject S. The prediction that a being codenamed Subject S would one day bring ruin to everything. That Subject S was currently recognized as the greatest hero in the world. That Cauldron, whatever else they were doing, was preparing to fight Subject S.

And then he met a strangely competent woman in a suit.

His rescue attempt had failed, the other him he'd come to rescue killed. But he wasn't stupid. He was on their radar now, and while he understood their purpose, he couldn't ally with them, not after what they'd done. They would kill him, in time.

So he let them. After making assurances, that is. It was a rather spectacular death, all told, and his memories were a little... spotty... now, but transferring his consciousness to his Aleph counterpart meant he was alive and free with a clean slate to continue to prepare for the day _the alien_ turned on humanity.

His name was Emil Hamilton, and he was going to save the world.


	3. Secret Origins: Path to Justice

**Worm's Finest**  
 _Secret Origins: Path to Justice_

(Cauldron HQ | 1995)

"I'd consider this a success, despite the physical deformation."

"Too successful, in a way. With his powers? Far too dangerous to keep with the others."

"The PRT has already drawn up procedures for the ones we've dropped off on Earth-Bet. We're calling them Case Fifty-Threes."

"We have too many assets on Earth-Bet, _including_ yourself. I'm fairly certain he's a telepath. Just imagine what would happen if he heard the wrong thought."

"Earth-Aleph."

They all turned to Contessa, who elaborated, "Wipe him, then leave him on Earth-Aleph. Number Man is already monitoring that world, just in case, but our assets there are hands off enough that there should be minimal risk of exposure."

"That'll set a precedent."

"Yes, it would. We'll need to distribute the others on both Aleph and Bet from now on, or people might wonder what makes him special."

* * *

(Cauldron HQ | 2001)

"Aleph's US Air Force has recruited one of our subjects. We could be seeing the beginning of an Aleph version of the Protectorate."

"Who?"

"Subject SA-Three-Eight-Seven. They're calling him Captain Atom."

* * *

(Cauldron HQ | 2003)

"Doctor Stone's work, particularly on his son, is unusually stable for tinkertech."

"That's precisely why we will not be recruiting him. He's fully capable of helping our goals right where he is, and we do not want to risk another Manton."

"I take it the same goes for Palmer?"

"Yes."

* * *

(Cauldron HQ | 2009)

"His powers are significantly above the mean and median power levels of Earth-Aleph."

"I believe I've traced the origin of his powers. During the Simurgh's attack on Madison, a number of buildings were shifted transdimensionally, including one of our storehouses. It appears one of our vials was shifted to Earth-Aleph and fell into the possession of one Patrick O'Brian, a small time thief and mob enforcer."

"Wait, a _criminal_ got superpowers and became a _hero?_ "

"...yes."

There was a pause.

" _Which_ formula was it again?"

* * *

(Cauldron HQ | 2011)

"They're organizing. Forming a team. They're calling themselves the Justice League."

"But... why now? Aleph doesn't have the villain problem Bet has."

"Perhaps the Madison attack has them concerned?"

"But even that was two years ago, and with Haywire's connection, they've been aware of the Endbringers since they first appeared."

"Hmm. Contessa, does this affect the Path?"

"No."

"Then I suppose it doesn't really matter."


	4. Secret Origins: Punchline

**Worm's Finest**  
 _Secret Origins: Punchline_

(Cauldron HQ)

Doctor Mother descended to the holding cells. Down here, underneath Cauldron headquarters, were the failed experiments - Case 53s, as the PRT would call them - who were unsuitable for release onto Earth-Aleph or Earth-Bet. Most were because of their powers, but a rare few...

"Hello, Doctor."

She suppressed a shudder. Subject B-42540. A rare few were like _him_ , too dangerous because of their mentalities, even _with_ a mind wipe.

He stood casually behind the transparent cell door, seemingly unconcerned by his imprisonment.

"Aw, c'mon," he pouted. "Aren't you even going to say 'hello'?"

Laughter echoed throughout the containment cells.

* * *

A/N: Written solely because people _will not fucking shut up_ about the Joker.


	5. Secret Origins: A Larger World

**Worm's Finest**  
 _Secret Origins: A Larger World_

(Lunar Orbit, Earth-Bet)

She stared at the remarkably tiny blue world below.

"H-holy shit," she whispered. "You weren't kidding."

"Yeah," the man floating next to her agreed. "It's a pretty heady sight."

"It... looks so small from up here," she murmured. To think, that tiny little ball contained everyone she ever knew, every place she'd ever been, the entire history of human civilization itself. Heroes, villains, Endbringers... all of it, all on that tiny blue sphere.

"I know the feeling," he said. "It's a big universe out there, Karren. Have you considered our offer?"

She turned to look at him. "I appreciate it, Hal, but the Protectorate - _Earth_ \- needs as much help as it can get. I have _responsibilities_."

She doubted he could understand. How could he? Appearance aside, he was _old_ , chosen before Scion, before capes, before the _Endbringers_.

"I know," he admitted softly, "and if you were the sort who'd toss them aside on a whim, you would never have been chosen, but there are other threats to Earth out there."

"Like what?" she challenged.

"We call them 'World-Eaters,'" he answered. With a bit of will, he created a glowing image of a planet appeared between them, with an undefinable shape approaching it. "They're... call them transdimensional planetary parasites. They go to worlds with sapient species on them, hiding in alternate realities." The undefinable shape landed on the planet and vanished, only for pinpricks of light that obviously represented battle to begin flashing across the surface. "They hand out powers, promoting conflict, observing with avatars modeled after the host species and culture, collecting data like some kind of giant lab experiment, and once they have what they want, they blow up the planet to reproduce, across multiple realities." The image of the planet exploded, then winked out. "The Corps's been fighting them for a while," he added.

Unwillingly, her gaze drifted to Earth as it all clicked together. "Scion?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, "but this is different. This particular breed works in pairs, and one of them's dead. Accident, sabotage, hard to say, but whatever the cause, the cycle can't continue."

"Why don't we take care of Scion first, then?" she asked.

He grimaced. "As much as I hate to leave, with the cycle broken, Earth is in no immediate danger, and there are other worlds, whole _species_ who face extinction, and with every cycle they complete, they grow stronger. Besides, our rings have limits. There's an... impurity to them. They can't affect anything yellow."

Karren Bowman - once known as Mouse Protector - stared at him.

"You've _got_ to be shitting me."

* * *

A/N: Mouse Protector's civilian name comes from _A Moth and a Mouse_ by Dragonlord7012 and is used with permission.


End file.
